Sep 24, 2026 · 56 min · 13 segments
John Bell in conversation with Kate Flaherty on his new book Living Shakespeare, in which he draws on his lifetime of personal and professional experience, speaking to Shakespeare's most absorbing…
John BellGuest
Kate FlahertyHost
So I wonder, John, if there are plays that become unplayable for periods of time… …because of their topicality… And I wonder if that should be challenged.
which is a shame in one way because every actor should play whatever part he wants to play.
But right now in this climate, you can't get a white actor to black up and play Othello.
It would be totally rejected by everybody, white audiences and black and critics would say that is just not on.
for many years, unless there's some new device in the theatre to do with costume or some sort of signifier that you can play a black man without having to black up.
Or else the climate will change and we'll revert to another way seeing things and not be so about what's kosher and what's not kosher there's a good word because Merchant of Venice is another one I played Shylock twice and Bill Shakespeare has done the Merchant of Venice three times and None of those times was it controversial.
So I wonder, John, if there are plays that become unplayable for periods of time… …because of their topicality… And I wonder if that should be challenged.
which is a shame in one way because every actor should play whatever part he wants to play.
But right now in this climate, you can't get a white actor to black up and play Othello.
It would be totally rejected by everybody, white audiences and black and critics would say that is just not on.
for many years, unless there's some new device in the theatre to do with costume or some sort of signifier that you can play a black man without having to black up.
Or else the climate will change and we'll revert to another way seeing things and not be so about what's kosher and what's not kosher there's a good word because Merchant of Venice is another one I played Shylock twice and Bill Shakespeare has done the Merchant of Venice three times and None of those times was it controversial.
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